Looking for budget friendly tablet/reader

[brios_10]

Hello, folks.
I'm new in here. After days of following updates here, I decided to join. Hope I can blend in the community!

Okay, let's get to the point, I hope I post it in right thread, I'm looking for a budget friendly tablet or something like that mainly
used for reading documents (docs, pdf), music, and video. But, please get easy on me, unfortunately
I only got a budget of $220 (Rp2.000.000, US/RP=1/+-9000). So, I've been targeting this baby Creative Ziio 7".
That site is where I'm going to buy, at Monday, 31 Oct.

I'm just a simple college student with limited allowances, so budget over that will be a no go.

So, I thought you folks at TPU might have some insight about tablets, and can recommend me
some good ones. I know, I can't expect something grand, but I'm all ears about what you can
recommend about tablets, you see, I'm quite noob in this area. And, I need this to work
with my paper, bringing laptop is a chore (heavy), and mine's only last for 2 hour. Maybe I'm better
off with a netbook, but being handy like tablet is quite nice. So, what's your advice?
And I'm looking forward to get acquainted with you folks!

Greetings from Indonesia.

 

[Major_A]

I've played with a few tablets and it boils down to one thing for me. DO NOT GET A RESISTIVE TOUCH SCREEN. They are garbage compared to a Capacitive screen. With that said make sure what you get can also be unlocked/jail-broken/rooted.

Don't get that Creative tablet, it's junk. It has an older ARM CPU and a resistive screen. On top of that it's only running Android v2.2 and it's Creative. Creative has a long history of dumping support on a product as soon as they can. I have an X-Fi soundcard and there hasn't been a WQHL driver for it in over a year.

Take a look at the Archos family. They have better screens and there are guides all over the place telling you how to root it.
http://www.archos.com/products/ta/archos_70it/specs.html?country=us&lang=en

 

[brios_10]

Isn't the Archos 70 sports same processor with Creative ones?

So, what should I look for on tablets. I looked up in internet, and it tells to get honeycomb coz it's optimized for tablet, capacitive touchscreen, and differences of home tablets and internet tablets (on Archos site, which make me doubt my choice).

So I make some choice about tablets that maybe within my range and based on your recommendation:
The first two is the creative i chose (fits my budget, $220) and archos that major recommend (it's still unconfirmed whether I can stretch my budget, $346) ones.

Or, in my country, there's a local brand (Nexian Genius) that sports capacitive, but with processor of qualcomm 600mhz, and still froyo, which is within my budget, it's 7" too. I looked up on their site, there's no support for update (to gingerbread or honeycomb) available. ($240)

Or Samsung Galaxy S wifi 4, but only 4". (a little bit outside of budget, but I can try, if you suggest this, at $270)

Or also a local brand, Zyrex Onepad sp1110, features Nvidia Tegra 250 Dual-core Cortex-A9 1GHz, 512MB DDR2 667 MHz, 512MB NAND Flash, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Camera, MicroSD Slot, 10.1" WXGA Capacitive, Touchscreen, Android 2.2? (if i managed to build up my budget to $330, maybe it's an alternative to archos one?)

And I can't wait, because I need it soon. All the prices is based on my country.
Can you make suggestions what I should look for? Or which one make the best choice? Thanks!

 

[Major_A]

If you can definitely get the Tegra tablet. The only tablets that have Honeycomb on them stock (as far as I know) are the expensive ones (ala Motorla Xoom, Acer Iconia, ASUS Transformer, Samsung Galaxy). The ARM 8 1GHz processor isn't bad but it's getting dated quickly. No point in buying something that won't hold up a few years. Most of the cheaper tablets all have v2.2 (Froyo) installed on them. Apparently it's a pain in the ass for them to update the tablets to v2.3 (Gingerbread) and even more so to v3.0 (Honeycomb). The good and bad of it is v4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) is supposed to be released this winter. But I doubt any of the tablet manufacturers are going to update it. This is why I said that you need to find a tablet you can unlock/root. If you can root it then you can probably find a custom ROM for it. Think of this as getting the update that the manufacturer won't bother coding. Before you pull the trigger on a product head over to XDA Forums and see what you can find out about it.

 

[stinger608]

Not to highjack this thread or anything, I am seriously thinking about getting one of the ebook readers or a tablet. Getting older and reading a regular paperback is getting harder and harder LOL.

Not sure which way to go to be honest. I was looking at this Archos tablet. Any thoughts or suggestions would be much appreciated.

Archos Arnova 10b 10.1" 8GB Multi-Touch Screen Int...

 

[Major_A]

Spend $15 more and get the Amazon Kindle Fire when they finally ship. The Archos you listed only has an 800 MHz CPU.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051VVOB2/?tag=tec06d-20

If you don't want to wait see if you can find a used Tegra tablet to hold you over. My mother has a Xoom and I have an EVO 4G. I've played with her Xoom briefly and it was like using a Core i7 then going back to my P4.

 

[stinger608]

Spend $15 more and get the Amazon Kindle Fire when they finally ship. The Archos you listed only has an 800 MHz CPU.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0051VVOB2/?tag=tec06d-20

If you don't want to wait see if you can find a used Tegra tablet to hold you over. My mother has a Xoom and I have an EVO 4G. I've played with her Xoom briefly and it was like using a Core i7 then going back to my P4.

Oh hell yea! didn't even think about the new Kindle Fire coming out

Yep I can wait LOL. Was not planning on buying one for about a month anyhow LOL. If I had the funds now though I would pre-order but that is not going to happen

Thanks for bringing that puppy up!

 

[brios_10]

Kindle Fire seems nice. Pity it's US only. Well, the good news is I managed to get extra bucks, so the tegra tablet is within my reach. It's a local branded Advent Vega, and I found many custom rom for it, including honeycomb, i think. So I decided on that tablet and I am going to order it on Monday. It's not perfect but, not much choice in budget areas.

Well, thanks for major that gave me input! If not for that, I might continue with my first choice though.

 

[Major_A]

No prob. Yeah I didn't mention the Kindle Fire since it's US only. You should be happy with the Tegra tablet.

 

[brios_10]

Finally, I'm able to post my finding about the tablet. In froyo, It's pretty smooth, but kinda laggy in audio and video playback. I have successfully flashed it into honeycomb which is vegacomb 3.2. So far so good, even though I stumble across wall like to find out the market isn't working, unstable wifi. Actually, I just forget to apply the update. Well, thanks for major a for the input. I will put this in a good use. Thanks TPU Forum!